The Mid Wales Summer....

[rhyds]

As the month of August, and the rush of tourists to the “nice” bits of the country nears, a menace rears its ugly head, The caravan.

Now don’t get me mixed up with the Clarksonesque “all caravanners must be deported to Mars” camp, over the last year or two I have noticed that a large proportion of caravans are now being pulled by meaty TDi saloons and other machines with the power to haul the extra tonnage and thus aren’t the rolling road blocks that they were when they were pulled by “trusty” 1.6 Sierras, but there is still one thing that scares the living daylights out of me, the sheer stupidity of some caravan drivers, today I saw a chilling example.

I was driving my brother home from work in his Volvo 340 (a former caravanner’s favourite, none the less, and a right "adventure" to drive ) when we came up behind a rather large caravan being towed by a 1990s Discovery. A fine combination you may think, a good, solid caravan behind a good, solid bit of Solihull’s finest, nice, sensible and safe. The end result however was far from this.

The caravan and Land Rover were all over the road, snaking wildly out of every corner and leaving the driver very little control over what was probably about 3.5 tonnes of rolling mass. The combination spent as much time on the right side of the road centreline as on the left, not something that’s recommended with Mid Wales’ rural roads and even came close to connecting with cars coming in the opposite direction. Both my brother and I were shocked that the driver seemed happy to barrel down the road under such conditions, oblivious to the risks he was taking with his and others’ safety.

Even more shocking was the sight that greeted me on the way back from Aberystwyth one day, a caravan and car had pulled up in a layby, and being the petrolhead that I am, I made a point of checking out the towcar for what was a good-sized caravan. It was a Citroen.

AX

Granted it was a 5-door, and thus weighed probably a bit more than a 3-door, but still, pulling a hefty caravan with something that weighs less than a Metro is taking the mickey just a bit. I discussed it with my father who was driving, and his comment was “It might pull that caravan, but stopping it is another matter…”

Caravaners must realise that they have even greater responsibility than regular road users to ensure the safety of their vehicles as they’re only just below the level of goods vehicles when it comes to weight and caranage-creation abilities. I never look forward to driving in Mid Wales in the summer, and if I see more crazy caravaners driving around acting as ticking time bombs, it will be even worse.

[RedRobin]

Not just in Mid-Wales. I recently encountered convoys of about a dozen at a time of Dutch caravaners on the autoroute to Lyon and the French Riviera, all nose to tail, but fortunately sticking to their lane so overtaking wasn't a problem.

Isn't there a law about the relative weight of the towing vehicle to the trailer?

[Teacake]

[ QUOTE ]

Isn't there a law about the relative weight of the towing vehicle to the trailer?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it used to be 85% of towing vehicle weight for single axle trailers and 100% for twin axle, but is now just advisory.